Dear friends and 13^th century monks,

Greetings and salutations both. As many of you either know or don’t know, I have had the pleasure of welcoming my fiancée, Julie Grazier to Petrozavodsk. As this arrival marks a new turn in my life, I will now use the pronouns “we” and “us” to indicate that there are indeed two of us sitting at this computer.

We are truly having a great time in Petrozavodsk. God has really blessed us with few to no problems and even a few surprises, such as the Nutella-esque chocolate swirl spread that cost about $1.50 and is delicious. Thank you for all of your prayers as Julie arrived safely without any difficulty whatsoever and we made it to Petrozavodsk without any trouble. We really feel blessed by this short time together before being thrown back into our busy lives in America (Peter will actually be creating one from scratch, which will be an interesting challenge).

One of the best things we’ve seen so far has been Kizhi Island, an island where the Soviet Union put old wooden churches from all over Karelia to serve as a museum for “dead” religions. Thanks be to God, our faith is not dead AND we have this wonderful place to see these impressive places of worship, one of which is now functioning as an Orthodox church once again.

Please pray for us as we leave for the village this Sunday and Monday, and then as we leave for Moscow the evening of July 30. We leave from Moscow to St. Petersburg on July 2 and then arrive in Minneapolis Sunday, July 6. Please pray for a smooth trip and more blessings as we make our way home. Thank you for prayers and support over these last 10 months – we saw them paying off then and we see even more fruit now. This will be likely be the final post from Russia on this blog, so thank you as well for keeping track of what’s been going on.

Sincerely,

Peter & Julie

Gah! A Month Between Posts!

Dear friends and ten gallon hats,
I do believe that it has been a month since my last post! Seeing as it has indeed been that long, I will write a post right now.

Part of the reason for my delinquency is the beginning of the 13th annual English Friendship Language Camp which EEMN (Eastern European Mission Network) and Lyceum #1 put on every year after school gets out. Students are invited to spend a week learning English with real Americans whilst using the Bible as a linguistic study tool. The camp began last Monday and I can say that I am entirely worn out! It turned out that this past week I was in charge of doing music and I have never danced and jumped up and down so much while holding a guitar in my entire life (those of you who know my from my Isle of Lucy days will understand what I feat that is). As I spent most of the evenings this week involved at You Are Special or other events, I usually did not arrive home until 9 or 10 pm after leaving in the morning at 7:15am. That's a long day. As I did not ask for a specific prayer request for me for this past week, if any of you felt a special call to pray for me during this time - now you know why! I really feel like I was given superhuman strength to make it through the day - I never even really got sleepy-tired (though my legs complained from the jumping and dancing).

Specifically, now, pray that this second week of language camp will go well. Then, please pray for Julie's arrival in St. Petersburg next Saturday. It is very important that the trip does not have any significant problems or delays and we also would love for it to be a stressless time.

I thank you for all your prayers to date and I look forward to seeing you all soon. It is difficult to get my head around the idea that I will see many of you in only about three weeks. Three weeks after nine months of being away seems like such a short time. I will miss Russia but despite my new friendship with the concrete jungle, I have left a much older one at home, one which I very much look forward to reengaging.

The following photo will make it seem like it's warm here. It's not. I wore my peacoat yesterday and I was cold. This is Blagayav Yest church a few weeks ago.


Sincerely,
Peter.

C Dien Pobyedui!

Dear friends and NKVD functionaries,

The degree to which Russians remember and honor the soldiers of World War II is astonishing. I grew up going to Memorial Day services every May 31st, but I am sorry Plainview, Petrozavodsk and Russia in general have you beat in their reverence for their fighting dead. Just check out this pile of flowers by the town eternal flame. Note the girl at right throwing coins onto the flame (the eternal flame here honors unnamed soldiers in the war - Russians throw coins onto it both to honor them and for good luck)
These flowers were not set here by the government, but rather they were bought at local shops and set down by individuals who wished to give thanks to those who made sure that they were not enslaved by the Nazis. Enslaved?

You see, around this time of the year in 1945, a very large war ended which Russians know as "The Great Patriotic War." The reason for this other name is that for Russians more than any of the other nations allied with it during that particular war, it was not just a fight to extinguish a very nasty ideology in Germany, Italy, and Japan, but more so a fight for existence. It had been Hitler's plan to subjugate, and when convenient, remove the Slavs from Eastern Europe to make way for the Germans, hence, in Nazi ideology the life of every Russian wasn't worth very much. Knowing this, the Russians fought for their very lives under awful circumstances and in spite of everything, including Stalin seemingly doing everything in his power to lose, their bravery beat the Nazis all the way back to Berlin. Even the hyperbole of Soviet propaganda could not ruin this achievement since in all reality it's significance is awfully difficult to inflate. These regular folks who left their farms in 1941 literally saved Russia from quasi-slavery (not that living under Stalin was so much better, mind you) and out of the undeniable reality of this sacrifice, Russians block off the streets once a year on May 9 and celebrate.

The Soviet Union loved doing ceremonies for just about everything, and Russia hasn't lost this old habit. Thus, everyone who has ever done anything significant in the army, navy, or air force comes out showing off all of their regalia. It is really quite impressive to see so many heavily decorated men like this one lurking around every corner.After all, they did prevent the capitalist Americans from invading the Soviet Union for all those years, so let's give them the respect they deserve (Its funny how we have such similar ideas, only with different names)! One of the real surprises of the day was to see the young Russian men who had managed to dig up their grandfather's old WWII uniform and parade it all day - there is something very cool about them, which is odd because these uniforms are quite worn and inornate. Perhaps it is their simplicity that gives them that mystique, either that or the cause for which they fought.

The real treat of my tour of Victory Day in Petrozavodsk was Shashuik - basically a meat kabob. Below is my favorite shashuik maker who even managed to don a WWII uniform for the occasion.
I was warned after the fact that I might be eating dog meat, but I will tell you, if dog meat tastes this good then perhaps the Koreans are on to something...

Ok, so this May 31st, I encourage you to celebrate Memorial Day in some meaningful way, and when you go to a service or whatnot, please remember too all those Russian peasants, miners, and factory workers who somehow managed to make it all the way to Berlin, and this despite frost-bite, little food, NKVD anti-betrayal death squads, an oppressive government, and sometimes fighting without even being issued a rifle.
War is awful, and I'm pretty near pacifism on this one, and people like me are often tempted to want to forget about wars we think are bad. Above are the graves of some generals and party commissars from the 1917 Revolution and the Civil War that followed. The morality issues with these wars make Vietnam look like Full House, but as you can see, Russians honor their lives and deaths nonetheless. You might say that those who laid the flowers there did so out of Soviet habit, and that might be part true, but it would not surprise me if I could take this same picture on Victory Day, 2058. Russians don't forget so easily.

The degree to which Russians honor those fallen in battle is rightly humbling. I think that we in Americans could learn a little from Russian gratitude.

Celebrate Memorial Day.

Sincerely,
Peter.

Another Day, Another 23.35 Rubles

Dear friends, family, and concerned Economists,

Luckily, unlike most news organizations, I have decided to let actual economists decide whether we are in a recession rather than allowing every American who happens to run across a news reporter the power to increase or decrease that likelihood by having their uneducated opinion broadcast on the national news. Instead, you get my blog post, which is far more interesting than a recession and far more educational.

One piece of good news is that one of my English convo table students was in church on Sunday, an answer to prayer to be sure.

As for my doings, this weekend I had the opportunity to make my first appearance as lead guitarist for "Gruppa Artur" aka Artur's group, the band so named not because it is a band name, but because the band leader, Artur, is a rather famous Christian artist in Karelia and the rest of us are not. In any case, this performance was quite a big deal because A) It's Easter here (Orthodox calendar) B) These concerts are one of the few opportunities for evangelism in the villages and C) I have never played lead guitar live before in my entire life, and I really, really, really didn't want to mess up in front of a live audience.

(me in Ribreka)

Unfortunately, I did not quite accomplish part C) but as for the rest of it, it went well and I got to see Ribreka (fish river) and it's awful fun to get away every now and then, even when the old Russian car you are riding in scrapes on the road every time you go over any bumps (I probably heard metal-on-asphalt 1,000 times or more. It never gets old and always makes your ears hurt).

Besides that, it is the same old same old. Please pray for me in the coming weeks as I take over Bible study and basketball duties from Eric as the Debelaks go to Finland to get their visas renewed. Also pray that they have no trouble getting their visas and they are able to come back in plenty of time to plan properly for Language camp starting in the second week of June.

As my final bit, I have included some of my favorite pieces of Russian prose in English that I have come across in my time here. I am sure that you will enjoy it as much as I have.

Some good advice for Julie and I

The Caution is good

And mobile means...collective reading?


Yes, ONLY BRITNEY!

I hope you enjoyed that bit of fun. Thank you for your continued prayers and support. They are ever appreciated.

Sincerely,
Peter.

And Then Success is Sure

Dear Friends and Philanthropists,

Vladik here has been vigorously listening in on all of my goings on here through his elaborate bugging scheme and he would report, as I do to you now, a very nice bit of success with relation to the "Lillies of the Field" film event this last Sunday. Two students came, and as it happens, one of them previously attending Blagaya Vyest's youth ministry some seven years ago. He came referring to himself as a "Prodigal Son," and it seems that such a cognomen might really be apt. What is so mind blowing is that he has attended the English Conversation Table for over a month and only upon entering the church for the film did I find out that he already knew Joel and the rest. Both he and the other student seemed positive about coming to next Sunday's Easter celebration, so please pray that they will come and their faith might grow.

The above description of the event makes it seem very rosy and provident, but I assure you that the situation was only provident and for about an hour, seemed much like a rose without any petals on it. Joel is blessed to have found a DVD player in St. Petersburg that is reputed to play not only all formats of DVDs, but all regions as well. If you are unfamiliar with the system, the US is one region, Europe is another, Russia is another, Asia is another region etc. and they are all incompatible (I hate this system - do people really move around the world so much that it could really be profitable to make them re-buy all of their films? And even if it is profitable, isn't it just downright mean and money-grubbing to do so?). In any case, at 6pm Sunday we had every reason to believe that our American copy of "Lillies of the Field" would work perfectly, since other American films had worked on this DVD player as well. You can imagine our distress when a dark blue screen appeared that said, "Disk Nilvsya" meaning, "It Don't Work!"

A full month of prayer and preparation had gone into this event, and as the main purpose of the English Conversation Table, there is no way on God's Good Earth that this type of thing would stop it. No way. Luckily, I had an idea. Joel has a car. Vitaly and Masha are already at church. My house, and thus my computer are not very far away...let's go get my computer! So we went, fast as we could to retrieve the computer and some water at my place (the church is in an industrial park and thus, no running water). Unfortunately, the walk from the car to the apartment jostled my brain enough to ask, "So, Joel, do you have an AVG cord for your projector?" Sure enough, when we verified that we were talking about the same type of cord (no one knows the name of any type of cord without using the word "thingy"), alas, we did not have this cord and thus, we could not connect my computer to Joel's projector.

Newly distraught I sent Joel to fill up the water while I was blessed with another idea - Eric might still be at AWANA and he has a car - maybe he could bring the Christian Center's projector! I quickly called him and again, as if a wall appeared in every direction, Eric was nearly home, which is the opposite side of the city from the Christian Center. After considering for a while showing the Jesus film or a Martin Luther film that Joel had, I decided that we had advertised "Lillies of the Field" and it would be duplicitous to go and show the Jesus film instead, and though God might work through it, I would lose the students' trust.

Then Eric had a wonderful thought. My house is actually not too far from the Christian Center by car. Vitaly and Masha had tea ready at church, so they could stall while Joel and I go to the Christian Center and grab the projector and speakers which we already know connect to my computer! Yes! That's it! We went, I grabbed the stuff, we came back, everyone was finishing up tea and we watched the film. Both the students and the church members loved it (it is really a delightful film if you haven't seen it, and it gets better with every viewing) and the whole event worked out swimmingly.

In summary, I must say praise God Our Father in Heaven for all the good work He does through us, and showing us the way even when it seems like there are walls in every direction. I am honored and humbled to do His work - He doesn't let it get boring, does He - and He never failed us in our hour of need. Amen!

Thank you all for your prayers, for they were answered yesterday. We had the titanic thrown at us and we didn't sink, and I can't imagine taking part in such an iceberg without your support.


Sincerely,
Peter.

Detsky Dom

Dear friends and anti-ivory poaching advocates,

Things are finally melting! It's actually spring! It's supposed to snow tomorrow. :( Oh well, what ya gonna do - we are almost at the arctic circle here and someone with very large lips once taught us all that we can't always get what we want, or maybe that was the third chapter of Genesis (the book, not the band, and if it was the band, then it would be the 1st chapter with Peter Gabriel singing and not Phil Collins). Regardless of what book of the Bible or what stage of a 70's progressive rock group's career we are talking about, I'd like to take a moment to update you on a new ministry that I have recently taking up.


Every Monday and Wednesday after my university group I travel to Kluchivaya, an industrial region at the far southern end of Petrozavodsk. In the last few years, these industries have not done very well and the area has become known for being one of the worst parts of the city, and right in the heart of this neighborhood there are a bunch of kids running around as if homeless. You Are Special, a ministry run by a local church, aims to work with these kids both on homework and even to just spend time with these kids (pictured: homework time at YAS).

I have spent the last two weeks teaching one how to play some very basic things on the guitar, and for a nine or so year old (I don't know how old he is), he picks it up pretty quick. Though he's often a nice kid, he has a lot of behavioral problems rooted in the fact that his parents are alcoholics and likely beat him on a semi-regular basis. YAS gives him a safe place to grow, learn, and be. Another girl who comes acts quite normal on the outside (she has even picked up the piano at our group) has spent a number of nights outside in the last year because she was either afraid to go home or was never let inside. You might ask how this is allowed to happen? Due to the level of alcoholism and its related problems in Russia, the social service and orphanage systems here are overloaded with children like these, and thus there either is not room in the system or children like these fall through the cracks. It is our goal, then, in what little way we can, step in and show God's love to these children, for despite how incredibly difficult they can be to work with (Eric and I agree that their behavioral problems surpass even that of the most difficult kids at Summer Advance), we know that these children are as valuable to God as you or me, and it is our duty to show them that the world is wrong, and that they are indeed valuable people.

After that somber bit, I thought I'd take a second and eat up some bandwith by showcasing our students' talents via a little video I took. Julie, do we need an organist for the wedding?

Enjoy, thanks, bye!

Sincerely,
Peter.

Lillies of the Field

Dear friends and Academy Award Winning Non-scientologist Actors,

I have two items of good news. First, the snow is finally melting. Finally! Yes, it snows some still to replenish the landscape, but we are taking two steps forward and one step back just about every week, and I've got just about enough cabin fever to start a medieval plague. As an interesting note, yesterday morning I was surprised by a flash of light and a loud explosion. I first thought that it had to be some sort of factory or building exploding, since given the state of things here, that wouldn't be too surprising AND that sort of thing happens even in the US and European countries, and, of course, it simply could NOT be thunder and lightning - it was snowing outside. The talk of the town later that day was that, in fact, it had been a thunderstorm, a SNOW thunderstorm, something that is so rare that Vera Petrovna has seen it only once before in her entire life. So there you have it. It IS possible for there to be thunder and lightning in a snow storm.

On another note, please start praying. We have set a date for our movie night at the church and it will be Sunday, April 20th at 6:30pm watching "Lillies of the Field," a classic American film with good Christian themes. This will be the first, and perhaps best, opportunity for my students to get acquainted with the church. We need the Spirit to work to convince the students to come to this off campus event, and then, to have a good enough experience to do the impossible - come back on their own. Thankfully, we have lots of time to pray and it is the week before Easter, and if there is any day that Russians consider visiting a church, it is Easter.

The last bit of information is a little more dire and at this moment, I ask for your prayer for Russia as a nation. Recently, we at the Christian Center have been accused of being a cult, actually a specific cult that we have never heard of, but the fact remains that any Christian organization that is not Orthodox is generally considered by the public at large to be a cult. Now, you would think that it would matter to the people here that these 'sects' allow people to freely come and go, disagree with them, are engaged in no coercive conversion tactics, and are considered in most Western nations to be within the normal stream of public religion (even by it's detractors). Hence, this label of being a cult is not only far fetched, but very dangerous, because it allows all non-Christians to dismiss the church without seriously considering it's beliefs. What is even more inconvenient is that, when pressed, many Russians will say that, "I am Orthodox in any case," which far too often means that they were baptized and go to mass on Easter and Christmas if they feel like it, and thus gaining little real knowledge of the gospel message that the Orthodox Church actually teaches. Thus, it is hard, we are opposed on all sides, mostly by ignorant convenience, and which in a way is convenient for us because in this case, no human argument or human will cause any change to occur. We are left to the New Testament principles of love and mercy, and then the power of the Holy Spirit to change hearts and minds to be opened to the Truth of Jesus Christ, the Lamb who was slain for the sins of all. So if you are looking for something to pray for in your daily devotions, please pray for Russia as a nation, that the hearts and minds that have been closed by material distraction and willful ignorance will be reopened by the loving hand of Jesus. It is the Wild West of Christianity here and unfortunately there are too many Cattle Barons, too many Billy the Kids, too many compliant shop keepers, and too few Open rangers and Wyatt Earps.

Thanks again for all your prayers and support. As I approach the final three months of my mission, I cannot express enough gratitude for how I have been lifted up by all of you back at home. Please continue vigilantly, for outside of Christ I am weak, and your prayers for me are a necessary component of what strength I have been allotted.

Below, for your viewing pleasure, is lake Onega, and what it looked like two weeks ago before things started melting. Ice fishing is alive and well in Petrozavodsk!


Sincerely,
Peter.

Greetings From the Concrete Jungle

Dear friends and elephants,
Things are really picking up. My group at the University has begun and I am really optimistic that it will grow into a meaningful way to reach the lives of the students with the Gospel. Please join me in praying for the best way to do this whilst still faithfully fulfilling my other commitments, that God will open His door when He is ready and I will know when that is. I feel at the moment that I ought to take it slow and build relationships, through which my faith can bleed all over them. I can't help it that I have an open wound.

It has gotten awful snowy the last few days, and I've got some nice pictures of the Concrete Jungle named Drevlanka. Drevlanka is the "suburban" part of town which like American suburbs like Eagan, my hometown, it is away from the city center and people started to build it up in the 80's. The only difference is everything else. These are the concrete block apartments everybody always talks about. Every building is practically identical, with every apartment similar, everybody fitting into this nice little box that would make a Manhattan economy-sized apartment seem like a cathedral. These buildings in particular were the last projects planned by the Brezhnev regime and the Soviets built very few buildings after that. As a note of interest, there is a common New Year's movie here where I guy goes on a bender in Moscow (where he lives), gets on a plane to St. Petersburg, tells the taxi to go to his Moscow address, and he is dropped off at an identical apartment building with the same street name and number as his Moscow address, only it's St. Petersburg. To make matters worse, the lobby is the same, the elevator is the same, and, get this, his key even works in the lock. He goes in, falls asleep on what he thinks is his own bed (all the furniture was the same too - Soviet mass production) and he just happened to be there just before the owner's husband-to-be came by for New Year's dinner. Behold, the wonders of mass-production!

And just when you thought I couldn't come up with anything more to surprise you, see the picture below. What is wrong with this picture, folks?






















Hmmm, that car has a lot of snow on it. Yes, it has definitely been there all winter. Abandoned car. But why the Wrangler crate on top? Is it a company car? Oh, you might think that, until you go over to look and find out that the wrangler crate has recently smashed through the roof of the car. How or why this happened, we can only guess. Perhaps the car was formerly owned by Levi-Strauss? Is this a vain attempt to plug a leak in the roof? Was the little Dutch-boy's finger too small this time?

No matter what the cause, I think we all must take a moment and contemplate in awe the magnitude of Russian ingenuity. No other people would dare take absurdity so far as this. Russia, we salute you.


Sincerely,
Peter

Announcement

Dear friends, family, friends of family, and people who found this in a google search,
For the first time I write on behalf of not just myself, but a very important person who is quite dear to me. I am happy to announce, and with good reason, that I, Peter J. Bodurtha, and she, Julie M. Grazier are engaged to be married! For a visual explanation of how such a thing could occur given my residence in Russia, see the photograph below:


The Bodurtha-Grazier Engagement One Act Play

Cast of Characters:

Peter - Peter J. Bodurtha
A lovelorn boy from the Russian wilderness
Packaging - Matroshka Doll
A richly decorated girl with a many-layered personality
Package - Diamond Ring (resting upon small Matroshka doll)
A delicate hanger-on easily manipulated into clandestine international schemes
Informant - David Varvel
Gregarious, absent-minded shopkeeper from the Middle of Nowhere, Nebraska
Courier - Lindsey Kaye
Willing accomplice to the informant, a slippery customer
Deliverer - Kieran Dwyer
Bookish laddy with hidden gift-wrapping talents
Gate Keeper - Beth Marquette
Well organized sister to Julie
Key Master - Joel Marquette
Bumbling side-kick to the Gate Keeper
Julie - Julie M. Grazier
American city girl with a heart of pure color.


The scene opens with Julie sitting on her bed holding a extravagantly wrapped box.

[Julie opens box and Packaging]

Peter: ?

Julie: !

Winter is finally here!

Dear Friends and Narwhals,
I am reporting from what is finally a wonderful wintery Petrozavodsk. Except for a few short bouts of cold in January, the temperature here has hung around zero celsius bringing a constant cycle of snow-melt-snow-melt-ice-melt-repeat. Now, since that is just about the worst weather I've ever lived through, I am elated to relate to you that for the past two weeks or so it has been a rather constant 2 to 5 below zero celsius, with nearly a constant trickle of snow. These conditions make for optimal sledding weather and we have not failed to take advantage.

Going both for fun and as part of our children's ministry, we use these little round sleds with a handle and try to balance on the way down. Below is Sirozhia and his sled.

Pictured below is one of the trains we normally form - I usually go first because I am good at keeping my feet up and not falling over - something I take full advantage of in the form of bailing at the last moment and sending everybody tumbling. It hurt so much when we flew into the trees.


Then after sledding, we go back to the Christian Center and, well, what else - Have tea!
From left to right are Eric, Sasha, Yelena, Sirozhia (hiding), and Graig, a molecular biologist visiting to give some talks in the schools.


As for other news, I start my group at the University this Wednesday, and I will be holding my "English Conversation Table" every Monday and Wednesday until the end of the year. Please pray that I will be able to use this meeting as a way to get to know students and get them connected to a local church. My best current idea is to have a field trip to see, "Lillies of the Field," a really awesome Sidney Poitier flick that you should all see if you haven't - a church here used to be a Soviet 'movie theater' for soldiers, and so is aptly equipped for such things. Please pray that something like that will work out. The deal is that no matter how cool and persuasive I am at the group A) I have to respect the stated reason for the table - practicing English through speaking about important contemporary topics - to do otherwise would be dishonest, so I won't be able to evangelize outright, (though, as I oft repeat, Christianity contains my world view and philosophy, and you wouldn't bar a communist from espousing his/her world view, now would you?) and B) Quite frankly, I will be leaving in July. If we don't get these people acquainted with a church, then I leave and the best I did was plant a seed in their head that maybe this Jesus thing isn't so crazy after all, which is good, but how much better would it be for there to be a continuing relationship between Christians in Petrozavodsk and the students after I'm gone? Way better! I'm really praying that we can keep this thing from being a cult of personality thing, though I am very charming! This has to be God's thing.

That's all I've got for now, except, ummm, maybe the above announcement!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!,
Peter.

Good News All Around

Dear friends and Dairy Farmers,
This week has been one piece of good news after another. First, thank you for all of your prayers. I have been contacted by a professor at the University and it looks like my one night a week conversation table will begin sometime in the second half of February. Students will be able to come and practice their English with me, whilst I get the chance to talk about the things that interest me, you know, music, politics, Christianity...Anyhow, this has been a prayer of mine for about a month and I am so happy it is going forward and I'm looking forward to getting to know the University Students this Winter and Spring.

The second bit of good news, or, er...bizarre news, is that I finally got my chance to go to Mak Dak. Have no doubt about it, Russia's number one trademark abuser makes a very well boxed we-made-this-this-morning-and-we-don't-have-heat-lamps burger called the "Биг Maк Дaк" (Big Mac Duck), plus some french fries that could have fooled me. As you can see, Mak Dak, which is only about a year old I'm told, is an American fast food simulation sort of like McDowell's from "Coming to America," where they have taken Scrooge McDuck (tm) and the Duck Tales(tm) and littered them around a menu that is vaguely similar to McDonald's (tm) (note the Big Mak Dak is sort of Big Mac (tm) with "Duck" added to it). And no, I saw no (tm)'s anywhere. Hold on, gotta go get another cold-burger. And yes, can you tell I don´t eat at Mak Dak much? I look emaciated in this photo. I feel like a waif. Russia drops weight faster than Jenny Craig doing the bench press.



Sincerely,
Peter.

And We're Walking...

Dear friends,
This last week has been a lot of the same, but with a few interesting things to tell you about. First, out of the blue, the teachers at School 42 asked me to give a presentation on...terrorism. Yes, that is correct, terrorism. I guess that being an American makes me an expert, though there is a false ring to that connection. Anyhow I put something together the best I could, but it worked very well that instead of talking for the entire hour, I instead took 15 minutes out at the end to just talk with the students about terrorism related world affairs. The presentation also gave me the opportunity to refer to an old Pastor Wells sermon that I still remember well about Jesus' words, "Love your enemies, do good to those who persecute you." These words apply to no other current subject more than terrorism, since as we've seen from the Israeli conflict, hating people just makes you hate people more, and only love as God gives it truly heals wounds. Thus I was able to refer back to this principle many times, whilst giving my opinions on Hillary Clinton :( Barack Obama <=` John McCain (:I) and Mitt Romney >:($), explaining my take on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict (LOVE YOUR ENEMIES), and telling them about the shoe bomber that made us all take our shoes off at airports (what a dumb guy). Oh yes, and in the spirit of my theme, note how much I love Mitt Romney (I have been paying attention folks. And Santana was traded - Boo for greed.)

As for my other activities, I have had some good discussions with some English teachers recently - pray that these conversations would continue and be fruitful. I continue to wait for some sort of opening at the University, so that's another prayer concern. Also, pray for my Russian - I am starting to get conversational though I need a lot of work, since the grammar is really difficult and there aren't very many cognates - I went to buy a clock battery the other day and I apparently cannot tell the difference between "eighty" and "eight" (vosyemdesyat and vosyem), so yeah, I need to practice my listening skills.

I thank so many of you for your heartfelt prayers - a special thanks to all of you for sending your cards all the way over here in Russia. Since mailing things is so complicated, you'll have to settle for me thanking you here and in person when I return this summer, but know that you have been thanked.

Sincerely,
Peter.

P.S. No new pictures, so here's a fun one. This is Vladik, Eric and Liza's son who I look after on occasion. I just taught him how to say 'chair' and 'big ball.' He's awful smart, but I make sure to let him know when he's getting uppity that I still speak English AND Russian better than he does. That's right, Vladik.

Winter Doldrums

Dear friends and primary voters,

Thank you all very much for your cards, emails, and packages that have arrived during the past month. As you can guess, it’s a little lonely being one of three American’s over here and knowing very few people who speak English, and the packages are a good sign of all of your love back home. However I anticipate that soon loneliness will cease to be such an issue. The reason is that since I returned from Syapsya in early January, I have been blessed with very little to do. I have had no presentations on my schedule and few responsibilities besides keeping office hours, participating in Saturday and Sunday activities, and helping Eric and Liza move to their new apartment. I have used the last two weeks wisely, in my estimation, in that I have used my extra time to put in a significant amount of Russian study every single day. The result is that I understand at least twice as much Russian as I did before and I am far more able to express myself than I was before. I believe that God has given me a light schedule for this reason exactly – I even carried a conversation with a student on Thursday that lasted at least fifteen minutes! A week or two more of this and I might be nearing fully conversational in the Russian language. Please pray that I continue to make regular progress.

You might be wondering how I all of a sudden have so little to do. Well, with Lyceum and School 42 just starting back up this week, I do not have any engagements on the docket. Furthermore, we have yet to hear back from the University folks about possible open doors there, so really, I am just studying Russian and praying hard about what to do next. God has me here for a reason and it will become clear when the time comes what my next course of action will be. My thought at the moment is that something will open up at the University, but if it’s at Lyceum or School 42, that’s ok too.

I will admit, though I like the time off, I would prefer to be working towards something new in the ministry – I am the anxious sort that has trouble being patient when I am not worn out, and since I am full of energy about now, I am like a teenager looking for trouble. Pray that my next task will become clear in the next few weeks for I am ready to go (or maybe I am just getting a waiting lesson, which is ok too, I guess). In any case, I have plenty of personal projects besides Russian to keep me busy, so until the Lord calls, I will be plenty busy with things that I hope He’ll be able to use in the future.

Have a great week and I will write again soon.

Sincerely,

Peter.

P.S. I need to announce a moratorium on package sending for the time being. If you want to send a package, let me know and I will tell you personally when the coast is clear. See, Eric and Liza are moving and so if you send anything to them now, Liza's Aunt will get it and not Eric and Liza and it might be more difficult to get if Liza's address does not match the address on the package. So, until further notice, see if you can send it as something that is thin and might fit in a mailbox. Pictured below is what my mailbox looks like. Mine is number 12.

The Russian Village

Dear friends and machinators,
Thank you for your prayers during the last few weeks, as it has been educational, crazy, and fulfilling all at once. Christmas and New Years were lonely and non-traditional, but I did get to see thousands of Russians set off their homemade fireworks against a background of ambulance sirens and see a 1am outdoor "play" that mixed the Nativity, Snegorichka, and the Year of the Rat performed by three Santas, a drummer, and two Peter the Greats (not so greats).

After the New Year, Eric and I accompanied a group from Eric and Liza's church to a village of about 500 people named Syapsya to conduct a week-long camp for the village children and some kids from a home for children who have been recently been taken away from their parents and are waiting to be placed in a home or orphanage. Needless to say, they were difficult yet rewarding children to work with. We did the normal things - play games, sing songs, make crafts, practice skits, meanwhile Eric, Sirozhia and I taught little Sirozhia how to make friends, enemies, and lose at Risk (all valuable life skills).

Sirozhia Risking loss - his are the blue pieces, big Sirozhia's are red (the "Red Army"), mine are black (the Army of Darkness) and Eric's in pink (the army of, er... "My Little Pony")


Thought it wasn't a big deal for kids to go into the woods in fairy tales? What do you think NOW!

Pictured here is the woods around Syapsya. This is wild forest with no sign of human activity for miles outside of town. Wolves live there and it is said that you should only go out at night in twos and threes because the wolves might get you. Ever wonder where stories like little red riding hood came from? Well, there you have it. Lyuda, one of the girls from the house in Petrozavodsk was scared by a number of stray dogs, ran into the woods and got lost. She then prayed that Jesus would help her to get home - remember these woods are only inhabited by wolves and moose for many miles in three directions - she heard the dogs again, got scared and by Providence her aimless run led her to a road back into town and she was safe. We were all so worried about her and very thankful to God for bringing her home safe, since, I should add, it was getting dark and the temperature that day was about -10F...and there are wolves.

Syapsya, aka the set from "Fiddler on the Roof"


Syapsya is like most villages in that while there is electricity, there is also no running water, no central heating, and it generally looks like the set from "Fiddler on the Roof". Thus, everything is done by wood stove, wells, and out-houses, even when it's -10F. It's odd because it's warm when you go to sleep but since it would be idiocy to burn wood while asleep, you wake up and it is about 40 degrees in the house - so cold.

Eric getting some water and trying not to freeze his boots to the ground - actually possible if you are not careful.



The bridge from Indiana Jones...or Syapsya

One of the great joys of this particular stay is that the four guys at camp all slept in a dacha across the river from the main house. This meant crossing this metal-cable bridge twice a day which, I must admit, was missing a lot of it's metal cables, cracked and swayed below our feet, constantly threatening to throw us into the frigid river. The Temple of Doom has nothing on this bridge, except there is not Indian manual surgeon chasing us, so maybe that's the equalizer - Rob, you'll have to ask around in Southern India for me.

In general, though they were really difficult to control, or to get to go to jail when they were tagged, the kids had a really good time and I pray that we made a difference in their very difficult lives. Russian villages have as high as a 90% alcoholism rate with no jobs, no money, and very little hope for a better life. We think we were able to share a little bit of the hope we have in Christ here and I really want to continue to make excursions like this since, as needy as the city is, places like Syapsya are at the point of crisis. These towns, which dot the countryside all over Karelia will probably cease to exist within fifty years as it's citizens either die or move to the city. Meanwhile they mustn't be left behind and I urge you to pray for Russian villages, that God would raise up leaders to bring fullness to these communities with very real physical, psychological, and spiritual needs. Because of the Soviets, most of the towns do not even have a church anymore so the spiritual need is particularly dire. A pastor from Petrozavodsk drives two hours each way every Sunday to preach there, and there will need to be more people like him to meet the needs of these small communities.

I have caught a cold and need to get my sleep, but I will leave you with this beautiful photo of the river that ran through the village. Since the air is quite wet there and the temperature was so cold, all of that white is the frost build up of about five days. Absolutely beautiful.



Sincerely,
Peter.

Dear friends and Christmas-types,

Thank you for all of your prayers and support – we need it. Good news this week is that our attendance for Awana last Sunday more than doubled, in part due to a couple of Christmas presentations I gave to 5^th grade classes. One child claimed that he had called five of his friends to get them to come – let’s pray that he calls them again. We really want Awana to grow and the program has been attacked by mistrusting parents, heavily restricting its growth.

As you know, it’s Christmas today, though not for me, since Russian Christmas is January 7^th. In fact, Russians don’t celebrate Christmas very much since the Soviets encouraged the people to celebrate “Novi God” instead (New Year) and Easter was always more important to the Orthodox Church in the first place. In any case, I would like to take this moment to remind all of the blog posters on stories on CNN.com that if Christianity really usurped Christmas from pagan traditions, then that in fact does not make Christmas a pagan holiday, unless the church was so inept as to unsuccessfully “usurp” the holiday, it would make it, in fact, a Christian holiday. As my business is not the “War on Christmas” which everybody seems to be getting so angry about in the states (I am often surprised by what people will write – on both sides). In the meantime, Merry Christmas (Not Angrymas).

Last week, Eric and I pulled out our guitars and participated in a Christmas concert at the Transportation University of Petrozavodsk. We played five traditional spirituals adapted from one of Bob Dylan’s favorite artists, Odetta (if you haven’t heard of her, Odetta’s Christmas spirituals are worth checking out). We were very well received and we rocked out, playing the songs as spirituals, bluegrass, and blues tunes. If we have more time in the coming months, we are considering recording these songs, so you can look forward to the musical stylings of Eric Debelak and Peter Bodurtha in the not too distant future. We have been invited by a group of Russian Orthodox Christians who hold Evangelical concerts to join them again for future concerts, so Eric and I are looking forward to those opportunities as well. Because we are American, play American styles, and sing in English, we provide the really interesting “Freak Show” to get people to come and sit down at the concert and then the Russians do the playing and preaching in Russian – it’s a really good system, so long as you don’t mind being the eye-catching gimmick rather than the meat of the ordeal, but hey, I am all about gimmicks, I have absolutely no problem with this, so long as people get to hear the Gospel. There were about 250 people there, a full auditorium, and they stayed till the very end, picking up 25 of the books the Russians were offering for free. The Russians are really great guys. Pray for their ministry (one of the guys runs an Alpha course at the main Orthodox Church in Petrozavodsk).


I wind up my presentations this Thursday, thank you for your prayers. I got into an interesting banter with a student about the merits of Nietzche – I am praying that she’ll come to the Christian Center to talk about it some time. I also met a student, the rare type that is studying religion and I’m praying she’ll come by as well, since we are the Christian Center Library after all – it would be a shame if she didn’t use us as a resource. Another highlight were the wonderful hand puppets created by a few 5^th grade students as pictured. Luckily, the teacher (pictured) was very nice and didn’t mind. Hand puppets are awesome.

Ok, that’s what I’ve got for now. Enjoy the pictures.

Sincerely,

Peter.

Picture time!

Dear friends and frogs,
I have received recent complaints that there are not enough pictures on my blog. Enough complaining! I, like such great men as Neville Chamberlain and Pontius Pilate give in! So, for those of you who prefer picture books to full-length novels, below are a few pictures that I think will satiate your ravenous hunger by presenting "Russia: in Living Color (or lack thereof)"



This is my bedroom. I fall asleep here at night and wake up in the morning. It is normally too warm so I keep the window open. There is someone downstairs with a loud stereo or television that stays on as late as 2am.



This is the most Russian photo I could find. This is what Russia looks like. It was taken outside of Eric and Liza's apartment some months ago.



This is what downtown Petrozavodsk looks like - one of the main squares. Despite the hugeness of the intersection (or maybe because of it) there are no crosswalks. Megaphone is the biggest mobile phone company around and -5 C is not a bad temperature for a walk, especially with new snow and long underwear.


This is another main square in Petrozavodsk, juxtaposing an old Lenin statue with the St. Petersburg style architecture. Everything in pre-revolution urban areas looks like this: Huge, austere, plain, intimidating, and light yellow.


This is how Russians have been building apartments since the Brezhnev era - with prefabricated concrete blocks. The upside is that they last forever - have you ever tried knocking over concrete? It hurts - the downside is that it is difficult to modify and properly add such commodities as outlets on outer walls (they are only on inside walls), sound insulation, controllable heating, ventilation systems, level floors, etc. This is next door to Eric and Liza's new apartment, which I think is quite nice.


This is a normal-looking market a short walk from Lyceum #1. No matter what the weather, the sellers are out there, the only variant being the products available and the layers worn by the merchants. You'll see in the background a new Orthodox Church, as well as evidence of evening. Have no fear, this photo was taken at about 1:15pm. That's right, 1:15. The sun is like this for about 4.5 hours a day and then it's night. I am becoming nocturnal very quickly.


What is this? Do you see the duck with McDonald's arches for eyes? It looks like some sort of cloned child of Ronald McDonald and Scrooge McDuck. I need to investigate, if only to find the man who came up with this fantastic combination of McDonalds and Duck Tales.


This is "Blagaev Yest," the church I attend on Sunday. The pastor is a missionary from South Carolina and a really nice, intelligent, stand-up guy. I play guitar every Sunday and I enjoy how much time they spend praying during the service (seriously, each part of the service is divided by a sort of prayer time)


If you made it this far, you get to see me practicing my new skill: Beating rugs! Every Monday or Tuesday I go out in the morning to beat the living dust out of Vera Petrovna's floor ornaments. I will say without reservation that this activity is going to make me an unstoppable hitting machine when I come back to the US. Do you have any idea how many reps I am getting each week? Oh man, it's so great!


So there you have it, so many pictures that I will not have to do this again for a few more months. Please pray for me as I begin my rigorous Christmas schedule next week. I will have something like 20 presentations in a week and a half, so pray that my voice holds out and that we are able to both get some students thinking about God and that they might come to the Christian Center.

Until later,
Peter.

Wow, Nov. 17 was a long time ago

Dear friends and seaside resorts,
My last blog was Nov. 19th? That was indeed quite a long time ago, and I will have to apologize for my delinquency but the internet monster came to Russia and told me that one month was much too quick and efficient for me to receive internet access, and thus I would have to wait yet another week, though he was kind enough to give me the cord I needed, which I admit added some nice ornamentation to our living room.

Since my last post, I have given ten to fifteen presentations about Thanksgiving and Mary W. Shelley's Frankenstein and they're relationship to Christian tradition and philosophy in Europe and the United States. The classes responded quite well, especially the older students of the 10a and 11a English tracks, though I am a bit puzzled as to why none of them have stopped by the Christian Center as yet, since I have implored them to do so many times. Please pray that some of these students, the ones with whom I can best converse, will come to the Christian Center and become involved in our activities.

As for other events, on December 17th Eric and I will be doing a Christmas concert composed of Christmas Carols and old Gospel carols on two acoustic guitars and harmonica. We've really managed to blues/bluegrass-up the music to beautifully, annoyingly, American sensibilities such that our language will not be the only thing American about us. We hope that doing the music in such a non-Russian way will draw more interest into the words we are actually saying, at which point we have the opportunity to explain the true reason for Christmas (which I might add, is the first week of January, not December 25 like in the U.S. It's a Russian Orthodox thing that I sort of like - it's nice to have new years day before Christmas rather than after.)

My Russian steadily improves while, as the judicious reader may have noticed, my English has begun a slow descent into the prose of the early American literature I am currently reading. I think I may return to the U.S. sounding like Captain Ahab.

I feel very blessed to have so many people back home praying for me and I thank every one of you for your letters and notes of encouragement, as being so far away for even two months is arduous, especially in a place like Russia where even the sun won't cheer you up. And, I should add, the sun's lack of cheer here has little to do with the people, government, or otherwise (I am rather happy with these aspects thusfar) but rather it's truancy from the sky. At last count, the sun rises at 10am and sets a little before 3pm, though those estimates may now be entirely inaccurate since I haven't met the sun's acquaintance in nearly a week, for it keeps hiding behind such a thick layer of clouds I haven't the slightest clue where it might be. I will say, however, that it is never quite day here, for dawn skips morning and afternoon altogether and goes on right into evening, dusk, and then a very long night. I do not really understand what all the hurry is, but if Joshua were around, I would have him get that big ball of burning gas to remain in the sky a few hours, and then maybe get him to move it a little higher so that everyone in Petrozavodsk can go swimming and get a tan, two things only bears and wolves dare to do these days.

There, enough of my rambling on about the sun as a personable object, and more blog posts, and more prayers, both from me for you, and from you for me. I pray that God will bless you all in your work.

Sincerely,
Peter.

Camp Kondeboga

Dear friends and supporters,

Our retreat in Kondeboga went very well. I think you will notice that I now spell Kondeboga differently, and that is because I have become orthographically enlightened. In any case, all of the kids, young and old, had a great time and we had great help from both the church there and church leaders Petrozavodsk. We had music, skits, Bible study, a photo scavenger hunt, not to mention the essential – tea time! (pictured). Thank you for all your prayers for this retreat.

If you missed it, my previous entry lists my new mailing address. It takes letters about two weeks to get here, not bad considering I’m half way around the world. I would love to hear from you, and letters are even nicer than email – and if I’ll always try to return the message (though I must admit, it is considerably more trouble for me to procure stamps and envelopes than it will be for you. But I will do my best!)

My first presentation went very well last Thursday and I have good reason to believe that some of the student’s from Vera Nicolayevna’s 11a English class will stop by during office hours this Tuesday or Wednesday. Thus we can build relationships with the students and direct them toward our weekend Bible Study and hopefully the church (eventually). We are very blessed in Petrozavodsk to have a quality Orthodox church in town – and it just happens to be the central church. They have an Alpha program and the youth leader there, a good friend of our ministry, even has a Russian Orthodox rock band. Thus, we can feel comfortable sending them to the traditional Russian church if they so desire.

I had another mishap this week – I picked up Eric and Liza’s son Vladik and wrenched my back, keeping me out of basketball for the third straight week for the third straight reason (two weeks ago it was my foot and last week was the retreat). Please pray for healing. I ran some yesterday and it felt ok, though I am still quite sore.

Thank you all very much and get a hold of our November newsletter for the latest news on the Campground Project.

Sincerely,

Peter.

New Address!

Hello everybody,
If you would like to send me any letters or anything, I now have a permanent address:

Peter J. Bodurtha

Frunze 6-12

Petrozavodsk, Karelia 185002

Russia

If you want to send a package, please send it to Liza Debelak at the address mentioned in an earlier article (it's better that way, trust me.)

Doomsday

Dear friends,
This weekend we go to Kondepega, a village about 30 minutes from Petrozavodsk for a retreat with some of our Christian Center and Awana students from Lyceum #1. There will be skits, presentations, food, tea (never without), and picture scavenger hunts (Photograph a Picture of President Putin – and more!). Please pray that the students both enjoy themselves and that the Gospel message has special impact for them this Saturday.

Monday I moved in with Liza Debelak’s mother, Vera Petrovna for the foreseeable future. Vera Petrovna is very nice and speaks a little English so I will learn Russian very quickly here. Please pray for my continued learning (my brain often hurts from studying – not a bad feeling!).

Pictured is my new acquaintance, the Doomsday Device. We don’t get along very well. Though the Doomsday Device is nothing more than a Russian water heater, I will now proceed in horrific detail the facts that have earned this hunk of metal its apocalyptic cognomen.

The Device works in the following way: In that oval crevice lies a spigot that releases natural gas. This spigot then lights a pan of more spigots which heat a water pipe that runs through the Device and to both the kitchen and shower faucets. Now, if by chance the water running through the Device were to stop for any reason while the gas is lit, the heat from the multitude of flames would turn the residual drops of water into steam. This steam would then expand rapidly, causing the water pipe to explode into the device’s metal casing. Obviously, then, this explosion of liquid would snuff out the flame, leaving the spigot to spew nothing but natural gas into the kitchen, then the apartment, then the building. If left in such a state for long enough, the flick of a light switch would cause the entire building to explode. Every apartment in the building runs on this system, though it is clear that the apocalypse has yet to affect this place, since no part of it looks to have exploded during it’s forty years of existence. Thus, you can see why I and the Doomsday Device have an uneasy relationship.

Thank you for all your prayers and support. If you do not get the newsletter, please contact me or someone who might get it to learn more about our Campground Project. There are no Christian Bible camps in the province of Karelia and we have been offered land 30 minutes outside of Petrozavodsk for a very good price. We would like to buy it by spring and we already have about one third of the $25,000 needed. Please consider giving to this project (talk to me or someone at St. Paul’s for more information.)

Thanks and I’ll talk to you again soon

Sincerely,
Peter.